We have a WinForms desktop app that connects to a remote server to pull some data. The remote server hosts a web service on a standard IIS website that queries a SQL Server database installed on the same machine. Today, if the remote server is under maintenance or not available our end-user cannot retrieve the necessary data.
Now I am requested to make this feature fault-tolerant. Here are my questions:
Should I ask for another remote server that runs the same web service and move the DB to a third remote server? So the two web services can connect to the same DB?
Should I consider moving the web service logic to the WinForms desktop app and connect directly to a remote DB paying a first-class 99.99% availability service?
Do AWS or Azure provide a ready-to-use solution that fulfills my requirements?
Is there any other option I didn't consider?
Related
I am trying to make a web page that is going to make an API call to query data in our existing remote SQL Server. When I am testing it now, my code can access the database using windows authentication, but when I deploy this web page on Azure, will my code be able to still access the remote SQL Server using windows authentication? If not, what do I need to do in order for my web page to query the data in the existing remote SQL Server?
Hybrid Connections is both a service in Azure and a feature in Azure App Service. As a service, it has uses and capabilities beyond those that are used in App Service. To learn more about Hybrid Connections and their usage outside App Service, see Azure Relay Hybrid Connections.
Within App Service, Hybrid Connections can be used to access application resources in other networks. It provides access from your app to an application endpoint. It does not enable an alternate capability to access your application. As used in App Service, each Hybrid Connection correlates to a single TCP host and port combination. This means that the Hybrid Connection endpoint can be on any operating system and any application, provided you are accessing a TCP listening port. The Hybrid Connections feature does not know or care what the application protocol is, or what you are accessing. It is simply providing network access.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/app-service-hybrid-connections
When having some on-premises data sources that one wants to access from Azure, is the "best practice" to create a data gateway, or is this becoming an outdated approach? I ask because I notice it relies on the "Gateway Cloud Service" which as I understand it is on its way out.
The actual requirement for me is only to be able to do a query from a functions app to the on-premises sql server. I'm not even sure this is possible through the data gateway.
Any and all feedback appreciated.
Take a look at hybrid connections: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/app-service-hybrid-connections
They are designed for what you want to do:
Basically, a tunnel is created between the SQL endpoint in your on-premise environment and a target endpoint for your Azure Function in the Azure environment. It uses HTTPS traffic, so it is easy on the on-premise firewall. To create the SQL endpoint, you'll need to install an agent called the 'Hybrid Connection Manager', which will act as a proxy between the Azure endpoint and the SQL server.
After the endpoints are established, you can connect to the Azure endpoint with your function, and it will be tunneled to the on-premise SQL (using the HCM).
Bear in mind that this will only work with SQL accounts, not with AD accounts. Also, the Azure Function must be hosted by a dedicated App Service Plan, not the consumption plan (alas).
Is it possible to create a secure connection between an Azure App Service, an Azure SQL database, and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) hosted on an Azure VM without creating an Azure App Service Environment. We are trying to keep costs to a minimum, and would prefer using normal Azure App Services without having the added expense of maintaining an App Service Environment.
If it is possible, how do we do it?
Yup. We do this exact same thing.
We have web apps running both as Cloud Services as well as App Services (on a ~$50/mo App Service Plan) that primarily consume a SQL Database for the data store. Then we've deployed SSRS to an Azure VM also consuming that same SQL Database. Lastly, we have our web apps consume the SSRS via the web services to pull reports and then re-host them from the web apps themselves. We do not expose our SSRS server to the internet for security reasons but if you wanted to, you could.
There's no reason that I know of that even the free App Service Plan couldn't do the same thing with your web app as long as you stayed within its quotas/limits.
I am trying to find code examples of:
1. Remote MVC App on IIS
2. Data is on the customers SQL Server and on the windows domain they are using their web browser from.
I have a MVC app that works well with IIS and SQL Server being on the same domain.
However, I am trying to figure out how to extend the MVC App to multiple customers by hosting the site on a remote IIS server and having the remote MVC application on IIS query the customers SQL Server database.
I am comfortable with MVC, Entity Framework, & SQL Server but have had a hard time finding examples for this scenario.
You can certainly change the connection string of your application to work with any remote SQL Server instance you please. Obviously being outside the domain poses some additional challenges and security risks that you should consider, however, to get them talking to each other you can simply specify the server address in your connection string like so:
Data Source=192.168.10.1,1433;Network Library=DBMSSOCN;Initial Catalog=myDataBase;User ID=myUsername;Password=myPassword;
The Network Library parameter forces the use of TCP/IP as a network protocol. Note that the customer will have to set up a SQL Server Authentication user on their database to simplify this scenario - using a trusted connection will be impossible unless you integrate your Windows domains, which could be a significant amount of work for little benefit.
Is it possible to have a WCF service that is running on Windows Azure communicate with a local / on-premises SQL Server database?
Alternative options we're considering are:
Push the 4 SQL Server databases that the WCF service needs to gather and process data from up to a Azure VM
Create 4 SQL Azure "clones" of the local / on-prem SQL Server databases and use the data sync feature to keep the Azure clones in sync with the local data.
Ideally, we'd like to be able to expose the on-premises database (via the VPN) to the service and hit each of the databases directly.
Yes, you can make outbound connections from any Azure hosted service, whether running in web sites, cloud services or virtual machines. If you need traffic going through a VPN, you'll need to use cloud services or virtual machines, since web sites can't be added to a virtual network.
Actually, an easier solution would be to host your WCF service internally and expose the service via an Azure Service Bus Relay. The service bus relay supports multiple authentication types for securing the service and no VPN is required. There is a good walk-thru here - .NET On-Premises/Cloud Hybrid Application Using Service Bus Relay. We have successfully used this technique to expose several services to third-party vendors.
you can set up Site-to-site VPN as shown in this resource - Step-By-Step: Create a Site-to-Site VPN between your network and Azure
I would think of SQL Data Sync for scheduler times and that too for small amounts of data (at least not in millions)